Which Variant of 2020 Honda City 5th Gen Petrol Is Most Value For Money?

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Honda City 5th Gen Petrol?

The pros or advantages of City 5th Gen petrol 2020 are:

• Biggest (longest and widest) car in the segment - long enough to be called a D-segment sedan
• 3 engine transmission combinations to choose from: petrol manual, petrol automatic and diesel manual
• Most powerful petrol engine with second-best power-to-weight ratio (the 4th gen City is still on sale and it’s number 1)
• Improved torque delivery - now comes 300rpm sooner than before. It also gets a 6-speed transmission now.
• Well-equipped base variant should suffice for most sedan buyers as it can compete with the top variants its rivals
• Good number of standard safety features (ESP, TC, HSA, 4 airbags, ABS)

The Honda City 2020 has the following shortcomings or problems:

• Most expensive car in the class - starts at well over Rs. 10 lakh (ex-showroom)
• Worst torque to weight ratio of 125Nm/tonne is on par with the Yaris and Verna 1.5
• 185-section tyres are too narrow for a car of this size and price. Even the Baleno has wider tyres.
• Automatic variants cost Rs. 1.3 lakh more and are a little expensive

Read more about the detailed price, dimensions and engine specs comparison of the new Honda City with the old model at the following link:

Read - 2019 Honda City 4th Gen Vs 5th Gen Honda City 2020 - Old Vs New - Whats Different?

Here’s our 2020 Honda City Variant Breakdown video in Hindi if you prefer watching instead of reading:

What Is The Price Of New Honda City 2020?

The new Honda City is available in 3 variants - V, VX and ZX. All three variants get petrol manual, petrol automatic and diesel manual transmission options.

The petrol manual variants cost between Rs. 10.9 lakh and Rs. 13.14 lakh. The petrol automatic costs another Rs. 1.3 lakh. It starts at Rs. 12.2 lakh and goes up to Rs. 14.45 lakh. The diesel engine models of the Honda City 2020 cost Rs. 1.5 lakh more than comparable petrol manual variants.

Also read - 2020 Honda City vs Hyundai Creta - Price, Specs, Features, Mileage Comparison

Compared to the older Honda City model, the new City petrol prices are Rs. 14,000 to Rs. 44,000 higher.

Is The V Variant Of 2020 Honda City 5th Gen Petrol Worth Buying?

The base V variant of the 5th gen Honda City costs Rs. 10.9 lakh with manual transmission and Rs. 12.2 lakh with the CVT automatic. The notable standard features of the 2020 City are:

• 2 front and 2 front side airbags
• ABS
• Parking sensors
• Traction control
• Hill-start assist
• Electronic stability control
• Day/night inside mirror
• Rear defogger
• Halogen projector headlamps
• Tyre pressure monitoring system
• 3-point seatbelts for all occupants
• Fog lamps
• 8-inch touchscreen with Android Auto and Apple Carplay
• Steering-mounted controls
• Electrically Adjustable & Foldable ORVMs
• Height Adjustable Driver Seat
• Tilt & Telescopic Steering
• Auto AC w/ Rear AC Vents
• Keyless Entry w/ Push-button Start/Stop
• Front Armrest w/ Storage
• LED DRLs
• Rear Armrest
• Cruise Control
• R15 Alloy Wheels
• Telematics (5-year subscription)
• Paddle Shifters (CVT)
• Fixed Rear Headrests
• Fabric Upholstery
• Remote Functions w/ Alexa Voice Assistant
• LED Tail Lamps

Also read - New Honda City 2020 vs C-Segment Competition - Price, Specs, Mileage, Dimensions Comparison

As you can see, this is a very long list of features for a base variant. It clearly doesn’t look like a base variant and has enough to hang with the top variants of its rivals, which cost about the same. This is a great option and worth buying even if you were previously not interested in the Honda City. This is a great value offering too.

Now, let’s see if the higher variants justify their incremental asking price.

Is The VX Variant Of 2020 Honda City 5th Gen Petrol Worth Buying?

The VX variant of the new Honda City costs Rs. 12.26 lakh with manual transmission and Rs. 13.76 lakh with the automatic. It’s Rs. 1.36 lakh more expensive than the V variant. For this additional sum, you get the following notable features:

• 2 Curtain Airbags
• Auto Headlamps
• Electric Sunroof
• 7-inch full-colour instrument console
• Auto-dimming IRVM
• 4 Speakers
• R16 Alloy Wheels
• Walk-away Auto-Lock
• Rear Reading Lamps
• Leather-wrapped steering and gear knob

This variant comes very close to justifying its asking price. Also, most of its features are good-to-have and may have a higher emotional value for some buyers. But, value-wise, this is the worst offering. It’s still worth considering if you want some of these features in your car.

Also Read - 2020 Honda City 5th Gen vs Volkswagen Vento - Price, Specs, Features Comparison

Is The ZX Variant Of 2020 Honda City 5th Gen Petrol Worth Buying?

The Honda City ZX petrol costs Rs. 13.15 lakh (manual transmission) and Rs. 14.45 lakh (automatic). It’s about Rs. 90,000 more expensive than VX petrol. It gets the following additional features:

• LED array Headlamps
• LED cabin lights
• LED Turn Indicators
• Lane Watch Camera
• Remote Open/Close Power Windows & Sunroof
• LED Fog Lamps
• Ambient Lighting
• Rear Windshield Curtain
• Leather Upholstery
• Soft-touch Interior Elements

The top variant too mostly adds good-to-have features with high emotional value. This variant also doesn’t quite justify spending the additional sum. Since it has a higher ratio of functional features, this is a better option to consider than the VX variant. From a value perspective, though, the ZX variant is not worth buying.

Also read - 2020 Honda City 5th Gen vs Skoda Rapid - Price, Specs, Features Comparison

Which Variant Of The 2020 Honda City 5th Gen Petrol Offers The Most Value For Money?

Let’s recap. The V variant of the Honda City is so well equipped that it’ll suffice for most buyers. In fact, it may even meet the needs of buyers who are otherwise considering the higher variants of sedans like older City, Rapid, Vento or Ciaz. The base variant of the new City 2020 is the most value for money variant of the 5th gen Honda City.

The V variant is not worth upgrading from a value perspective. But, this variant is not too expensive either for the additional features and is worth considering. Most of its features are good-to-have and style-oriented. So, we’d recommend that you instead jump to the ZX variant and go all in. The ZX variant also has some functional features, which most buyers will appreciate.

What Are The Engine Specifications Of The 2020 Honda City 5th Gen Petrol?

The 5th gen Honda City has the same 1.5-litre normal petrol engine, which makes 121PS power and 145Nm of torque. This is the most powerful engine but it makes that power at a very high 6600rpm. Enthusiasts will enjoy revving this engine but for everyday driving, it can’t match the bottom end torque output of a turbo petrol engine like that of Verna, Vento and Rapid. However, for a normal petrol engine, it has the best torque output. More importantly, its torque now comes 300rpm sooner, which should further improve the everyday drivability. Its torque to weight ratio is among the worst at about 125Nm/tonne - on par with the Yaris and Verna 1.5 and worse than the Ciaz.

The new City petrol also gets a 6-speed manual transmission now, which can help improve the fuel efficiency on the highways.

The new City petrol has an acceptable mileage of 17.8kmpl with the manual and 18.4kmpl with the automatic. These numbers are 0.4kmpl better than the older 4th gen City.

Also read - 2020 Honda City 5th Gen vs Toyota Yaris - Price, Specs, Features Comparison

What Are The Dimensions Of The 2020 Honda City 5th Gen?

The new City has acceptable performance and doesn’t impress with its petrol engine. But it has seriously impressive dimensions. It’s the longest and the widest car among its peers. In fact, it’s so long that it qualifies to be a D-segment sedan in our books as its longer than 4500mm. It’s actually longer than some of the older generations of D-segment sedans like Elantra fluidic, older Corolla Altis and Civic.

The 506-litre boot space is almost at the top of the list and its ground clearance is also acceptable at 165mm.

Where it leaves us wanting is with tyre size. It’s seriously under-tyred as even smaller cars like the Baleno get 195-section tyres. Thankfully, this is something that’s easy to upgrade and you can easily swap out 1 or even 2 sizes wider rubber for a better stance and grip.

Also Read - 2020 Honda City 5th Gen vs Hyundai Verna - Price, Specs, Features Comparison

*unofficial

What Are The Colour Options Of The 2020 Honda City 5th Gen?

The 2020 City 5th Gen is available in the following 5 colour options:

• Red
• Silver
• White
• Grey
• Brown

Note: Here is a quick look at our length-based segmentation of cars to give you an idea of how we are classifying cars based on their size.